Into the Wardrobe

Yes, I'm afraid so...

USA TODAY: As a father of two daughters ages 4½ and 2, Adamson made sure that the girls weren't off to the side during the fighting but directly involved. "Susan really kicks (butt) in this film, and Lucy gets to use her dagger," he says. "Georgie would have complained loudly if she hadn't."
Popplewell proudly notes, "I shoot lots of people with my arrows. We kept a sort of death count, and I reached 14 halfway through shooting."

http://www.narniaweb.com/news.asp?id=1402&dl=14980370

I'm glad to read that Andrew let Georgie do a bit with the dagger. It would have been grossly unfair if she had been left out.
I say this for two reasons, [and not because I know Georgie has the "youngest child's gift of strong volume"].

1. When Lucy grew up in Narnia at the end of LWW, she was renowned for going into battle, using her bow, etc. She was rightly called Queen Lucy the Valiant as she showed courage that most young women did not, then or in the 1940s. Within a year of the events of HHB she had returned to England and her 8-year-old self, ready to 'grow up again'.
Lewis indicates that some of what she had gained is returning with every breath of Narnian air, in Prince Caspian.

2. Lucy will be a more independent girl in VDT, no longer looking to Peter and Susan for support, but helping Edmund and Caspian make adult decisions. In spite of being supposedly only ten in the book, I won't be surprised to see her played as pretty much her actual age at shooting (13 this July). Georgie needed a chance to start showing this side of Lucy's character, to help the audience realise she is no longer the little girl who did the "pretty please" pout and big eyes to Peter when suggesting Hide and Seek in LWW.

As for Susan "kicking butt", this is neither new nor needs to be literal. Shooting a few arrows and waving a sword/dagger about is okay. I don't think she's beheading or filleting anyone.

I must admit, I cringe at the whole concept of the night raid scene - is it honestly necessary? I believe not. But...*sigh* I read the article from USA Today also, and I'll admit I am a bit nervous as I believe the movie could be closer to the book than what they're doing, but nevertheless as long as they keep it to just shooting arrows (on Susan's part) and using the dagger (on Lucy's part) and in limited amounts, I suppose that can be bearable. As for Lucy, it sort of makes sense - I mean it was after all she who according to H&HB fought in some battles, but Susan - it's a real break in character both from the book version of Susan in LW&W and PC and in the movie version of Susan in LW&W "Mother sent us to the professor to escape from the war!" (or something like that, she said...)

Ahh well...at least they can't do too much damage to the much loved VDT.

I just finished rereading PC, something I'd planned to do before the movie but not too close to the movie as to interfere in my movie-gong experience. Anyway, while reading it I was reminded about how much Susan isn't in book. She really doesn't do anything other than complain (which I see as her moving away from Narnia, but that's beside the point.) I remember now that it actually annoyed me when I read PC before. Think about it:

*Peter the High King fights Miraz in single combat.
*Edmund the Just mediates the arrangement for single combat and helps fight in the ensuing battle.
*Lucy, always the most pure at heart, sees Aslan and has a few scenes with that.
*Susan shadows Lucy and complains.

Now I'm not advocating Legolas!Susan, but I can see why they needed to have her actually do something. Lucy as the most faithful has to have the scenes with Aslan, so despite the fact that she's better suited to fighting that Susan, she can't fight because she has to be with Aslan. Susan, though, is almost an extraneous character except as a foil for faithful Lucy, but you can only take so much of her not being as good as Lucy. At least with her archery skills she has something that none of the other characters do.

My conclusion: If they do it right, I actually won't be too disappointed in Susan "kicking-butt' so to speak. (Though it would be nice if they point out that she doesn't like fighting.)